Ireland's Aaron Connolly opens up about alcoholism and rehab

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Sunderland and Ireland forward Aaron Connolly has revealed he has battled alcoholism for several years, saying he spent a month in rehab this summer after realising the addiction was killing him.

The 24-year-old, who opened up about his alcoholism in an interview on second-tier Sunderland's website to mark World Mental Health Day, pointed to his brilliant Premier League start when still a teenager as the beginning of his downward spiral.

"I had everything a young boy could dream of but I couldn't get hold of my addiction," Connolly said.

He was 19 and playing for Brighton & Hove Albion when he scored his first two Premier League goals in a game against Tottenham Hotspur, his first start.

"My phone was blowing up [after the Spurs game]," Connolly said. "It was one of the best days of my life but also one of the worst because the following five years came from that.

"I stopped working. I started to believe the hype and I didn't turn into a good person after that. I was tough to be around, no one could tell me anything. I didn't know how to deal with it, to be honest.

"I always say to my parents that I started to live the life of a footballer without the football side of it and that was the hardest bit to admit at the time – that I wasn't doing all the things that had got myself in that position. It hurts to look back at it and speak it.

"I had problems off the pitch and it was highlighted a lot. I lost track of myself, lost track of why I was playing football, chasing things that I was never chasing before that Tottenham goal."

Connolly scored eight times for Hull City last season, but said his life was falling apart off the pitch. While his joy once came from playing football, he began looking forward more to getting drunk afterwards.

"I decided at the end of July that it was too much, I couldn't do it, live the way I was doing," he said. "It was killing the people around me, family and friends. Mainly it was killing me."

He calls rehab the "best and worst" month of his life.

"My life was so unmanageable. I couldn't control my alcohol. It got to a point where I had to make a decision that I needed to go to a treatment clinic," he said.

"I told my agent not to contact any clubs. I wasn't doing this for football. I was doing this so I could get my life back."

Connolly signed for Sunderland in September after his Hull contract expired. He has not featured in any games yet although he was on the bench for the 2-2 home draw with Leeds United in the Championship on October 4th.